


Apple Store Shenanigans

by ScarletDestiny



Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Apple stores are good meeting places, Arya needs a new phone, F/M, Gendry is perfect, Modern AU, Pink is the new black, She ran over hers with a car, arya is not a lady
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-08
Updated: 2019-08-25
Packaged: 2020-08-13 01:02:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20165554
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScarletDestiny/pseuds/ScarletDestiny
Summary: Based on the following prompt from Twitter: gendrya modern au: they meet at their cell phone carrier’s storegendry is there to upgrade his like-new iphone bc the new model is out and arya is there bc she finally bricked her six-year-old phone that looks like a toddler chewed on it and then threw it out a window.(Dedicated to my friend Eva - the biggest Gendrya shipper I know.)





	1. Chapter 1

Fighting against strong gales of wind that were determined to intervene in fate, Arya Stark pulled open the glass-paned door and strode confidently into the Apple store. Inside, the few employees present lounged at various desks, bored and clearly counting down the minutes until their shifts were over. The only other customer in the store, a young man perhaps only a few years her senior, was excitedly yammering on about some new technology as the poor guy helping him simply bobbed his head up and down, failing to get a word in edge-wise.

The tinkling of the bell as she entered caused a few of the more alert employees to glance her way, their bored expressions turning into one of interest as they noted the gender and unique attractiveness of their new customer. Arya was used to people looking at her, not as intently as one would notice Sansa of course. Her older sister had been graced with height and an incomparable beauty. Still, most guys tended to give Arya at least a glance when Sansa was not around.

Ignoring the stares, Arya walked purposely up to the nearest employee, a skittish man in his mid-thirties, if she had to guess by his thinning and greying hair. His blue eyes darted across her form, questioning why someone like her would walk in an Apple store in the middle of a thunderstorm. 

Running a hand quickly through her damp, shoulder-length brown hair, Arya reached into her pocket and pulled out a phone that had seen many better days. The screen was one large crack, no doubt she had cut her fingers on the edges many times. The edges were scuffed and blackened; even the faded Assassin’s Creed case was cracked in numerous locations - it certainly hadn’t been effective at keeping the phone safe in quite some time.

Plopping the ancient and worn phone onto the desktop between herself and Mr. Jumpy, as she took to calling the man in her head, she shrugged lightly and offered up an apologetic smile. “Guess it’s time I get a new one.”

Mr. Jumpy simply stared, in equal parts horrified at the state of the device and awestruck that it had managed to continue working after being put through so many tortures. “How -” he stuttered, still in shock. “How long have you had…?”

“Oh, a few years,” Arya responded simply. In truth, she had gotten the phone as a present for her thirteenth birthday. Now, at eighteen, she had decided that it was finally time to trade her old phone in for a slightly newer model. Hopefully one that wouldn’t prank call people all on its own, though those conversations were always hysterical. 

“I don’t want a brand new one,” she clarified as Mr. Jumpy began scrolling through available phones on his tablet. “I just want one that’ll get the job done. I don’t need anything fancy.”

Mr. Jumpy balked. Likely, he was used to customers who came in demanding the latest and greatest in cellular technology. “Why - why wouldn’t you like a new model? We...we have ma-many great phones.” Shoving the tablet under her eyes, he quickly swiped through a gallery of available options. “The 6 has a fantastic camera! Great for selfies and adventurers.” 

“I don’t -” she began, only to be cut off as Mr. Jumpy’s enthusiasm grew. 

“Or there’s the 6S - long-lasting battery, plus built in fingerprint security!”

Why she would need fingerprint security on her cellphone, Arya had no idea. Her confusion must have shown on her face because Mr. Jumpy frowned slightly and immediately launched into a lecture on why it was important to keep private information under close supervision.

What did he think she was keeping on her phone? It was mostly sarcastic memes and games like Pokemon Go. 

“Maybe you should show her an older model,” a clear voice cut in, stopping Mr. Jumpy in his tracks. He looked perturbed, frown growing deeper as he turned his attention to berate the intruder, and then clearly thought better of it.

Arya, glancing around to see who had joined the conversation, decided she couldn’t blame Mr. Jumpy. Tall, broad-shouldered, brunette hair a bit shaggy from the wind, the other customer cut an intimidating figure. Must have been a football player or weight-lifter, Arya figured, to get a figure like that. Not that she was taking a moment to admire him or anything. 

If the stranger noticed her staring, he didn’t comment on it. Instead, blue eyes twinkling in challenge, he picked up Arya’s old, beaten phone and caressed it carefully, admiring the many scratches and cracks. “Did you run over it with a truck?”

She smiled a bit at the comment, remembering when her brother Jon had informed her that her old Otterbox case wasn’t actually indestructible. Driven to prove him wrong, she had climbed behind the wheel of their mother’s minivan, and purposely driven the back tires over her phone placed strategically in the driveway. Other than a couple of surface cracks, her phone had survived the ordeal. 

“Something like that,” she shrugged, taking the phone from him. Turning back to Mr. Jumpy, she pointed at the tablet he was still holding. “Do you have any flip phones?” 

Arya had always wanted a flip phone - there was something so satisfying in being unique, in having a phone that you didn’t have to take special care of. All the phone would do was make calls and texts, but she supposed she could live without the games. Though she mostly wanted to see the poor man’s aghast expression. 

“No!” he yelped, “We haven’t sold those ancient things in years!”

“Pity,” she replied. “Maybe I’ll just keep this one then…” 

Next to her, the stranger chuckled, “Just give her the upgrade directly above the one she has now. It’d be a…” he glanced down at the phone in her hand, “a 5S. I know you still have those in stock. Or, better yet, get her a 5C.” Arya could only stare at the handsome stranger as he confidently outlined exactly what she wanted in a phone. How did he know? 

“You get to pick a color,” he explained, turning his sharp-eyed attention to her. “You seem like the type of person who’d like that. Getting to be unique.”

She certainly was, but it unnerved her how someone she had never met had been able to read her so easily. “What colors?” the question slipped out of its own accord, though she was certain she had meant to stand up for herself, inform the young man she was not some technology damsel in distress. 

“Blue, pink, silver, gold, pretty sure there’s an ugly yellow and a red too.” 

“Pink,” she answered immediately. 

The stranger merely shook his head, an amused smile lighting up his face. “You heard the lady. Pink it is.”

Mr. Jumpy, sensing he wasn’t about to make a great sale, sighed heavily and headed towards the storeroom to get the requested phone.

“I’m not a lady,” she protested lamely. 

“Kyle reacts well to confidence,” the stranger explained. It was then that she noticed he was cradling a new phone box of his own, newer by far than the phone she was getting. 

“Do you come here a lot? If you know people’s names.” Arya hadn’t even looked at Mr. Jumpy’s nametag. 

The stranger shrugged, “Every time there’s a new phone out. So yeah, I guess you could say I come here too much. My wallet hates me.”

Returning from the storeroom, Mr. Jumpy took Arya’s old phone and began transferring contact information, photos, and the all-important game data onto her new phone with more storage. 

Twenty minutes later, Arya was prepared to walk out of the store with her new phone, which was entirely took clean and in one piece for her liking. Maybe she’d run over it with a car just to make it look more like her old one. Tracing her figure across the smooth screen, she almost missed the pads of her fingers getting caught on surface scratches. 

Thankfully, the rain had stopped. Reaching towards the door handle, the door suddenly swung open in front of her. “After you,” the handsome stranger grinned, acting his chivalrous role out with perfect precision. 

“Hold the door only for pretty girls?” Arya quipped, striding past him, her gaze focused mostly on her new phone. 

Suddenly, the phone was plucked from her grasp. 

“Hey!” Spinning around, she put up her fists, all too prepared to fight to get her property back. 

“Calm down,” the stranger chided with a gentle laugh. After a moment of typing on her phone, he handed the pink cell back to her. “That’s why you should get the fingerprint scan,” he informed her with a wink.

Taking her phone back, she glanced anxiously to see what the man had done. ...Only added his number apparently. The nerve! 

“See you around, my lady,” the stranger - Gendry - she fixed in her head, knowing his name now from his contact information - made a mock bow and walked off down the street.

All Arya could do was stare in confusion. But she didn’t delete his number. Not many people would have helped her find a unique phone, after all.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Arya and Gendry text for the first time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THANK YOU!!!   
Everybody left so many nice notes that I just /had/ to make a second chapter. There may be a third in the works. ;)

Text: 11:26pm

  * To: G

[Sansa didn’t believe me when I told her a hot guy gave me his number at the Apple store]

Text: 11:32pm

  * To: M’lady

[Who’s Sansa? Friend? Sister? Dog?]

Text: 11:34pm

  * G

[Sister. Who would name their dog that?]

Text: 11:35pm

  * M’lady

[Dogs can have fancy names too.]

[So - about this hot guy you mentioned…]

Text: 11:38pm

  * G

[You don’t know Sansa. She named her dog ‘lady’. Lameeeeeee]

[Did I say hot? Autocorrect. I typed weird.]

Text: 11:42pm

  * M’lady

[Easy name to remember. So how many siblings do you have?]

[dammit, Siri! I’m trying to rack up compliments.]

Text: 11:44pm 

  * G

[Look who’s curious about the girl with the old phone. Texting is easier without getting your hand cut. Lacks personality though.]

[Siri is on my side. Don’t try to turn her.]

Text: 11:45

  * M’lady

[Your phone was too ancient to be called old. The dinosaurs called and they want their chew toy back.]

[Me against the two of you? I’ll bow out now.]

Text: 11:48pm

  * G

[booo the 90’s called and they want their joke back]

[You don’t know that much about me….but yeah you’d lose. Every. Time.]

Text: 11:51pm

  * M’lady

[90’s throwback? You really are stuck in the twentieth century.]

[Do you always threaten people you just met?]

Text: 11:56pm

  * G

[I like the twentieth. It’s less stupid.]

[I threaten everybody who deserves it.]

Text: 11:58pm

  * M’lady

[Not by much. Might as well join us in this century for the technology.]

[So everybody?]

Text: 12:04am

  * G

[You saw my phone. Do I look like someone who cares about technology?]

[Bingo. Give the man a prize.]

Text: 12:10am

  * M’lady

[Your poor phone. I’ll have nightmares about it forever.]

[What’s my prize?]

Text: 12:13am

  * G

[boo hoo. You’ll live. It was perfectly fine when I buried it.]

[hmmmmmm let me think]

Text: 12:17am

  * M’lady

[Sorry...did you just say you buried your phone? Like an actual funeral?]

[I can feel the anticipation rising.]

Text: 12:24am

  * G

[Played Panic!, lit a few candles, and said some words before throwing it down the well.]

[keep teasing and you won’t get a prize]

Text: 12:29am

  * M’lady

[...I can’t tell if you’re joking. Please tell me you filmed this.]

[Don’t take away my prize!!!]

Text: 12:35am

  * G

[Why would I have filmed such an intimate moment?]

[Fine. Fine. I’ll think of something.]

Text: 12:38am

  * M’lady

[Touche. Next time you trash a phone, I’m going to film it.]

[...waiting….]

Text: 12:45am

  * M’lady

[You still there?]

[Maybe you fell asleep.]

Text: 12:55am

  * M’lady

[I’ll stop teasing you about the phone.]

Text: 1:32am

  * G

[Noon tomorrow. Nick’s Coffee off of 5th Ave.]

Text: 1:34am

  * M’lady

[Are we hiding a body?]

Text: 1:42am

  * G

[Not this time.]

[Be there or you phone gets it.]

Text: 1:44am

  * M’lady

[Scary. I have chills. Actual chills.]

[But I’ll be there.]


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Coffee date in all of it's glory. Teasing, flirting, and adorableness ensue.

Arya Stark absolutely did not show up an hour early for her ‘date’. Nor did she spend half that time pacing around the block of the coffee shop debating whether or not she should even go in. What was she thinking, meeting Gendry for coffee? At a quarter to noon, she swept her hair into a quick ponytail, not caring that it was likely messy. No way was she going to walk into a coffee shop at noon on a Saturday looking like she had put effort into her looks. Not for any guy.

Tugging open the glass door, Arya strode into Nick’s Coffee Shop, trying to steel her nerves and shove them to the back of her mind. She couldn’t remember the last time she had been this nervous - it was disconcerting and she did not like it. Walking up to the counter, she impatiently joined the growing line of fellow coffee addicts, tapping her foot on the tiled floor. Scanning the menu boards hanging from the ceiling gave her eyes something to focus on, though she already knew her order. 

What if he didn’t show up? The thought had kept her up half the night, and she had been tempted to text Gendry back and tell him not to come, that she had prior family plans and couldn’t get away. Lying to him felt wrong though. 

What if he wasn’t really interested in her and this had all been some sort of dare? It wouldn’t be the first time she had been singled out as the punchline for a prank. Last guy who had stood her up had gotten a broken nose the following day in school. His friends had thought it was hysterical. No guy had had the guts to ask her out since.

The line in front of her moved slowly as each customer ordered stranger and more specific coffees than the person in front of them. She screwed up her face upon hearing one middle-aged man in a jogging suit order a soy latte, extra caramel, no sugar added, with three shots of espresso. How the man hadn’t died of a heart attack, Arya couldn’t guess. 

At long last, she approached the counter. Seeing the weary expression on the barista’s face, Arya decided to give the poor girl a break. “One large mocha latte, please,” she said in her nicest tone. Working with the public had to be the worst job ever, especially seeing as people were so particular about coffee orders. Arya figured the least she could do was be pleasant and leave a couple of dollars in the tip jar.

Taking her mocha latte, she glanced around the coffee shop for an open table. Mostly, she saw students procrastinating on homework, heads bowed down on the tabletops in defeat, caffeine clearly needing to be pumped directly into their bloodstreams. Besides a few families with small, noisy children, the place was relatively empty the further back she went.

Settling into a chair near the back of the shop, but with a clear eye-line to the front door, she waited. If she glanced at her watch every twenty seconds and ignored her latte as it grew colder, it was definitely not due to nerves.

Quarter after noon, she heaved a sigh. Of course. Just another guy feigning interest in her. She shouldn’t really be surprised. After all, it was Sansa who boys were interested in, not her. But Arya had hoped that maybe...maybe Gendry would be different. Maybe he actually saw the real her. 

Pulling out her phone, she typed out an angry text message complete with capital letters, exclamation marks, and aggressive wording, informing Gendry in no uncertain terms that he was a damn bastard and better delete her number.

Her finger hung over the send button, fury radiating through her. 

With a gentle ‘ping!’ her phone announced the arrival of a new text, and her finger retracted as if burned. 

[Sorry, sorry, sorry! I know I’m late. Omw. Traffic sux.]

Surprised, she sat back, staring down at her phone. Suddenly realizing her scathing message was still hanging about waiting to be sent, she backspaced quickly, erasing her anger with the text. 

[NP. I just got here.]

Okay, so maybe lying was necessary sometimes. But there was no way she was informing Gendry that she had, in fact, been waiting at Nick’s Coffee shop for over an hour. How desperate! 

Taking a sip of her latte, she sputtered as the chill liquid touched her tongue. How did a hot beverage get cold so fast? 

Pulling up Pokemon Go on her phone, she proceeded to spend the next few minutes distracting herself from nerves by catching a few low-level Pokemon in the area and setting up shop at a local gym, kicking out the Valor players who had previously held the spot. 

As the last player’s pokemon was defeated and kicked from the gym, she heard the bell above the door jingle and she glanced up expectedly. Immediately her eyes caught sight of a well-toned figure standing by the door, gazing around intently. 

Raising her hand in greeting, she caught his eye and waved him over, even as her breath caught in her throat. He was actually here. 

Gendry rushed over to her table, face flushed from the wind outside. “Hey,” he said, standing awkwardly beside the table she had chosen. 

“Hey, yourself,” Arya replied, eyeing him curiously. “You going to stand there all day?”

Shaking his head, he smiled lightly. “Nah, I just -” he gestured vaguely towards the door, “wasn’t sure if you still wanted to hang out. Me being late and all. Standing is better for escaping.” 

Arya didn’t hold back her eyeroll as she gazed upwards at him, “Sit down, dummy. You think I wait for all the guys?” Not that there were any others, but he didn’t need to know that. Not yet.

Still standing, Gendry reached into the messenger bag hung over his shoulder and pulled out a clumesly-wrapped rectangular. Handing it over, he took a seat, grinning knowingly. “That’s the real reason I’m late,” he explained.

Looking down at the poor wrapping job, Arya found she couldn’t quite find the words. “You - got me a present?” Sliding her finger under a corner of the paper, she tore into it, tearing the wrappings easily in her curiosity. “You didn’t have to -”

Glancing up, she held the now unwrapped present in her hand, a mock scowl on her face. “You got me a phone case,” she exclaimed. “A sparkly, pink, girly phone case.” 

Gendry’s sly grin only grew wider at her obvious displeasure. “The store didn’t have any black, emo cases. Told our mutual friend Kyle - you remember Kyle, Mr. Jumpy, wasn’t it? - that he should order a better stock.” 

Arya continued to glare, “But it’s pink.”

He shrugged, reaching over to pick up her cold mocha latte and taking a casual drink. “Your phone is pink. It seemed fitting.”

She couldn’t exactly refute that, after all Gendry had been there when she proclaimed she wanted a pink phone. “You did this on purpose.”

“Pink is the new black, right?” he responded with a wink. “You’re just spear-heading the charge: being a badass girl with a pink phone.”

Smacking him on the arm, she couldn’t help but laugh at his teasing. “It’s an important charge! Who says you can’t like pink and be amazing?” Without a word, she let him continue drinking her latte. Maybe he didn’t think it was gross? Though cold coffee had never been her favorite.

“Whatever you say, m’lady,” he did a little mock bow, obstructed as he was by the table. 

“Don’t call me that,” she groaned, snapping the case onto her phone. “I’m not a lady.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had a ton of fun writing this short fic. Never did I think it was going to be so well-received. Thank you to all who read, liked, and commented on this story - you are all the best. 
> 
> If you have any suggestions for my next modern Gendrya fic, please message me :)


End file.
